Month: August 2017

We are where we come from—and where we choose to make our home. For David Giffels, that’s one in the same: Akron, Ohio, Rubber Capital of the World, where he grew up and now lives, teaches, and writes. The Hard Way on Purpose: Essays and Dispatches From the Rust Belt (2014) is his fourth book, following his 2008 memoir, All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House. His new memoir, Furnishing Eternity, came out January 2, and I will be talking with David about it soon, right here!

In 2017, I spoke with David about Northeast Ohio’s brand of funny, fellow Akron native Lebron James, why the hard way is the best way, his latest book—and more.

David — In The Hard Way on Purpose, you use humor to great effect. You call Akron “the Ralph Malph of the American industrial belt.” With your identity so closely tied to the place, when the place gets beaten up—nearby Cleveland is “the mistake on the Lake” to many still—do you take it personally? Do you deflect with humor?

It’s part of the culture here to laugh at ourselves. When you’re in any culture that’s been misunderstood, degraded, or used as the punchline to a joke, one of your defense mechanisms is to get to the punchline, first. Most Rust Belt cities—but especially this area—have a long tradition of this kind of humor. Here, a lot of people have traced it back to Ghoulardi, a 60s late-night B-movie horror host on local TV. He had this dark, ironic, anti-authoritarian sense of humor that influenced a lot of the people who’ve become our local cultural spokes-heroes: bands Devo, The Cramps, and Pere Ubu; and filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. There’s a certain kind of homeliness to where we live, and instead of being ashamed of it, you can make fun of it—and be a part of it, too.

How did you learn to write funny?

I guess it partly comes from having two parents who had really good senses of humor. I don’t know if I learned how to do it. One of my first professional jobs was writing for MTV’s Beavis and Butthead. I learned a lot from that. I talk about this in my new book: I was writing these clever-sounding lines, but it was not working. I was trying to be the Noel Coward of MTV. And show creator Mike Judge said, “Just make it stupid.” It was a great piece of advice. A lot of humor writing comes from letting down your guard, letting things roll.

You were a newspaper columnist before becoming a professor of creative writing and an author, and you wrote about Cleveland sports teams. One of the essays in The Hard Way on Purpose focuses on fellow Akron native, Lebron James. I have to ask, how do you like Lebron now?Read more

In a recent interview with Akron, Ohio, author David Giffels (interview post coming soon!), I was introduced to the 1960s local TV celebrity, Ghoulardi (played by Ernie Anderson). Ghoulardi was the late-night horror host of Shock Theater on Cleveland station WJW-TV.

According to David (and many others), Ghoulardi’s brand of irreverent humor helped shape Cleveland’s quirky sense of humor that continues today.

Who shaped your town’s brand of funny?

From an article celebrating 50 years since the ghoul’s first TV appearance, by John Petkovic on Cleveland.com.

He [Ghoulardi] ruled through mayhem and mockery. He turned followers into zombies. And he altered the gene pool, leaving a legion of freaky followers to continue in his wake.

Hey, groop, blow off some boom-booms for the 50th anniversary of the arrival of Ghoulardi.

The following is an excerpt from The Cleveland Neighborhood Guidebook. By Sally Martin I have a confession to make. I live in South Euclid and think it’s pretty freaking awesome. This The post When Your Neighborhood Just Can’t Get No Respect appeared first on Belt Magazine | Dispatches From The Rust Belt.

For me, in order to write fiction, it has to feel like science fiction—building a world from thin air, not memory. Recalling real places stops my flow. Of course, memory is at work all the time, but not in a conscious what kind of trees were those? how long was that dock? kind of way.

Visitors tour Carrie Furnace in Rankin, PA – an abandoned steel mill saved from destruction and designated a National Heritage site. It is now used for art space, music, festivals and tours.

Ryan Thompson blows glass art at the Glass Pavilion in Toledo, OH.

Allison Hurley and Dan Lake take a break for lunch on an overlook with a view of Cleveland’s innerbelt bridge being dismantled.

The great thing about blogging is the connections you make.

In a post a while back, I called for photos of the Rust Belt–and was subsequently linked to Howard Hsu, a photographer living in Seattle, who was kind enough to let me feature his work on my site. This post, and my previous post, feature photographs Howard took on his Rust Belt tour in 2014.

Been to any of these places? Were you as surprised as I was to learn that Toledo was once a major glass-making hub? Visited any of these spots since 2014? How have they changed.

Here’s what Howard Hsu, photographer, wrote about his Rust Belt visit:

Transition and reinvention in the U.S. rust belt in 2014–Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Youngstown and Toledo.

The former bastions of the 20th Century industrial machine–empires built on auto, steel, glass, rubber and large-scale manufacturing–that changed the modern world but now struggle to keep up.

From art to biomedical and robotics to urban farming and community programs, each city is searching for ways to transform its economy and perhaps identity.

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